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September 2012 looked very hopeful for my blog. I had gotten a much better start posting regularly and had the goal of becoming a consistent blogger. A visit to the doctor by my husband, Brent, on September 17th changed all of that.

Brent had been struggling with his health for months, never quite recovering from injuries and getting sick regularly. At the time we certainly did not put all the pieces together but were frustrated by his continuing lack of full, vigorous health. On that Monday, September 17th during his visit to our doctor’s office they finally did extensive testing to see why Brent was feeling like he may have “walking pneumonia” in his words. He came back home and told me that they took so many vials of blood he was surprised he had any left. We waited for a call back to get his lab results. When the Nurse Practitioner called to give him the results in person, he was immediately alert to the seriousness. She sent him directly to the emergency room and told him that they may need to give him transfusions because his platelets and white blood cell counts were so low.

Our journey began at North Kansas City Hospital ER. They took Brent back and began the process of discovering why his blood cell counts were so low. The search began with possible blood loss. He went through many tests and was placed in the intensive care unit. On Wednesday, the 19th, we were finally given a diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. We were told that it would be possible he would need a bone marrow transplant and that those were not available at NKCH so they contacted KU Medical Center to see if he would be accepted as a patient there. He was accepted and we transferred within hours to KU Med’s BMT Unit.

Brent began chemotherapy almost immediately. We found out that he had the markers for Philadelphia Positive ALL and that they would definitely plan to do a bone marrow transplant if they could find a donor. Brent went through two rounds of Chemotherapy and then on November 19th he received a stem cell transplant with a donation from his brother, Dwayne, who was a virtually perfect match. Brent is recovering well and has almost reached the 100 day mark where he will undergo extensive testing. All in all everything related to his current battle with cancer has been “best case scenario.” He was in remission after the first round of chemotherapy. He had one more round, which is the minimum they recommend. The transplant was exactly two months after diagnosis with a wonderfully matched sibling donor. Our family has had such wonderful encouragement and support from friends, family, acquaintances, above all we could ask or think the Lord has blessed us throughout this trial. If you would like to read a more detailed account or would like to follow Brent’s journal follow this link.